Eurodam 11/20-11/27 review

[krewzin]

There were 4 of us....wife and I, and our 2 boys ages 18 and 16. Living in Florida, we drove to Ft Lauderdale and stayed at Hyatt Pier 66 the night before the cruise, and as usual it was great. Had a wonderful view of the port from the 14th floor, and waking up to 6 ships sitting there is always exciting. After a late room service breakfast, we gathered our suitcases and headed to the pier, arriving around 12:30pm.

 

Dropped the luggage and family at the curb and drove accross the street to the parking garage. Upon arriving back from parking the car, I found the family waiting for me just inside the entrance to check in. We filled out our forms, and since we had booked the PH, were quickly escorted onto the ship by the Hotel Manager. She passed us off to a crew member who left us at the entrance to the Neptune Lounge, and after he pointed it out to us and quickly departed, we headed right for our suite to unload our carry-on.

 

Suite was beautiful, and we quickly settled in and then headed out to explore the ship.

　

　

Rather than bore you with our day-to-day goings on, I'll simply highlight our thoughts for the week:

 

 

MDR food:

was really fantastic. First night (we had My Time Dining) was a tad hectic, and our waiters seemed rushed and unhappy...but the food was still excellent. On the 2nd night (formal), we ended up with 'Ali and Dede,' who were a wonderful team. They smiled, joked, and took very good care of us, so we stuck with them the rest of the cruise and absolutely loved the entire experience.

 

And I really can't say enough about how all 4 of us loved what we ate; each night we ordered the vegetarian entree as an 'extra' to share between us, and even that was just absolutely incredible, while at times being deemed our favorite for that night.

-Give the MDR 5 thumbs up.

Room service:

Excellent. Prompt, and food was very good.

-5 thumbs up.

Lido:

Decent choices, not too crowded if you avoided peak eating times, and food was again....very good.

-5 thumbs up.

 

Desserts:

I gained 5 pounds this week. 'Nuff said.

-5 thumbs up.

Tamirand:

Tried it on the 4th night, and although the food was very good.....we didn't care for it too much. Service was incredibly slow (took 20 minutes to get a cocktail), and even after asking our waitress if we could get desserts quickly (as we wanted to make the 10pm show), we waited another 10+ minutes for them to come out. It seemed like everything in that place was in slow motion, and we were sorry we even tried it because we enjoyed the food in the MDR so much.

-Give Tamirand 3 thumbs up.

The Slice pizzeria:

Pizza not very good, and guy serving it was a grump.

-2 thumbs up.

The Grill (burgers and hot dogs near the pool):

Burgers were just ok, but another grumpy dude serving.

-2 thumbs up.

　

Cabin:

PH is really big, and beautiful, but whoever designed the lighting system in that cabin needs to go back and take 'Lightswitches 101.' There were no less than 6 panels of slider switches (w/6 sliders on each panel) throughout the cabin, and they all pretty much operated the same lights. So if you are in the bedroom, and want to turn on the reading lights, you move the slider switch to turn them on and 'bam!' the lights in the living room come on with them. If you try the slider switch for the vanity area, 'bam!' the dining room lights come on with them. Every slider switch ended up turning on another set of lights in the other room, which is a problem when you get up at 6am and want to read, and you put your reading lights on only to find out that you've also turned on every light in the other room where your kids are sleeping.

 

We called to try and have this corrected/figured out, but nobody really had an answer to this problem....and they gave us workarounds which didn't always work. -One night at 3am, the overhead lights in our bedroom just came on, to their brightest setting, and nobody was awake. It was very strange.

 

The other problem, was the incredibly loud creaking sounds in the cabin, in the cabinetry that holds the flat screen TV panels. We had fairly rough seas throughout the cruise, and we understand that creaking is normal; but the sounds that were coming out of these ceiling/cabinet panels however, were so loud, that all 4 of us had difficulty sleeping for the first 3 nights. It was like someone was tapping the walls with a golf club, evry couple minutes. The concierges said that this had been an ongoing problem in the 2 PH suites that they were aware of, and that the Eurodam was going into drydock in April, and this would (hopefully) be repaired. The whole ceiling panel has tgo be torn out so they can get to the problem.

You could look up the sides of the cabinets, and see where they had hammered wooden wedges where it abutts to the ceiling to try and stop these loud sounds....but to no avail.

 

One night, I was able to take a half dozen knives and wedge them into strategic places in the cabinetry which helped alleviate the noise to an extent.....but they weren't happy that I had utilized their silverware to do this (I caused no damage), and sent in the technician/carpenter to remove the knives and hammer more wedges into place. Their wedges didn't work as well as my silverware placement, and we contunued to suffer. They tried a couple times to fix the problem (as apparently they had in the past), but could not. They finally sent us a bottle of wine with a letter of apology...and 4 sets of ear plugs in an envelope, lol!

-3 thumbs up.

 

Cabin stewards:

Got worried when we came in and found a dirty towel on the floor, another on the balcony on day 1. We had 2 stewards, and they were very pleasant. We normally interact more with the cabin stewards but these guys seemed very shy and we really didn't see them all that often -which is fine. There was a day or 2 when we left our cabin late, and we came back to the beds not being made up yet, but that was no big deal. We had ice every day, the obligatory towel animals, and everything was kept spotless.

-5 thumbs up.

Neptune Lounge:

I think we ate more there than any other place on the ship other than the MDR. Laverne and her cohort (can't remember her name) were really nice, and helped us out when we needed it. The convenience of the NL is always wonderful, and the capacino/expresso machine is great.

-5 thumbs up.

Laundry:

Free laundry for suites is awesome; wife loves it when we come home with clean clothes!

-5 thumbs up.

Entertainment:

We love the shows, and try and hit every one of them. Wow, were we sorely disappointed! The 1st nights 'Welcome Aboard Show' consisted of Jason, the CD (who actually was the funniest CD we've ever encountered) talking about the upcoming shows, and then having 2 couples play a game trying to drop plastic fruit/foods into a garbage can from a tray on their heads. After that, they chose 2 guys from the audience to participate in a type of 'golf game,' -and that was it.

 

Night #2 was some singing, and a little dancing from the cast....another 'preview of sorts'....and that was it. Night #3 was this Irish couple who played the guitar and fiddle, while attempting to interject some absolutely insipid comedy that was so incredibly corny we contemplated walking out, but kept thinking "this has to get better" -but it never did. In their defense, although they were quite talented, they really were better suited for a bar or smaller venue rather than being the 'feature show' in the mainstage area, and whoever booked them as a 'main act' made a huge mistake IMO.

 

The comedian the next night was really quite good, and the magician, who we'd seen on the Zuiderdam years ago....James Cielen....is always a treat. The next nights musical production was fair, as was the final night (HALcats?). We enjoyed the HAL 'Superstars' and the Newlywed type shows, mostly because of the energy from the HAL CD Jason; again, the guy is really funny and personable, and without him I think the ships' entertainment would've been a total bust.

-3 thumbs up.

Movie theater:

Small, but hey, they have one! We went to a 1pm showing of 'The A Team,' and people were still sauntering in looking for seats at 1:30 (there were none...gee, go figure). Since there wasn't a single HAL employee anywhere around to help anyone looking for a seat, the door and curtain (blocks out the light and the noise) to the theater were constantly left open, necessitating somebody getting up to close both.

 

Popcorn was brought in on a tray by someone working for HAL about 1:15 (awful microwave stuff) .....but they must've dropped it off and ran (drive-by popping), because no one could find them to ask them to turn up the sound, so we could hear all the dialogue! We wanted to see 'The Other Guys' 2 days later, but after that experience, we just waited for a day to watch it on our cabin TV.

-2 thumbs up.

　

　

Ports:

 

Grand Turk: was cancelled due to 40 knot winds.

San Juan:

Did ATV tour (booked on our own) at Hacienda Campo Rico. It was 25 minutes from ship, beautiful place....had a blast!

St Thomas:

Champagne sail and snorkel. A lot of fun...enjoyed immensely.

Half Moon Cay:

Beautiful beach! Rented a cabana, and that was a bonus, although they came and took our unfinished chips, salsa, guac, veggies, etc that I had put in the fridge while we were swimming at 2:15.

 

BBQ food was okay, but there were a few items they were out of (cole slaw and potato salad).

 

We did the 'AquaTrax' excursion, which was sit-down jet skis. The guys who ran it were extremely unpleasant, and need to find another line of work!

　

 

Overall, we really enjoyed Eurodam. An incredibly beautiful ship: probably the absolute cleanest ship I've ever sailed. They keep just about everything looking beautiful and brand new on her.

 

Having just cruised Celebrity Solstice July 25th, we found ourselves making a lot of comparisons. We found both lines to be quite similar in many aspects, while the look of the ships were vastly different; HAL is very traditional, while the Solstice is very modern.

 

Our cabin problems were unique; at least to us. But really, there wasn't anything anyone could do about it. I was a bit disappointed that this was a problem that they were aware of and had not yet fixed, but it sounds like a major deal to repair (at least that's how it was explained to us). Plus, it only happens when the seas are pretty rough (which unfortunately for us, they were) .....but still, hey....this is the PH, we pay extra for this -get it done, or have the ear plugs waiting in the cabin!

 

The crew was fantastic (other than the grumpy guys who worked at the ice cream bar, the burger grill and 'The Slice' pizzeria).

 

The nightlife on Eurodam was a bit on the weak side.....after the 10pm show, it seemed that 90% of the ship went to bed, and it was quiet (unless you were in our cabin, lol). We also found that there wasn't as much to do on Eurodam, as far as their scheduling activities. -We knew going in that the Eurodam is a more laid back ship, and we didn't have a problem with that.

 

There were 300 kids on this sailing too....but you really didn't notice them, so they must've kept them busy.

 

WE spend a LOT of time on our balcony, and there were quite a few smokers around us that, at times, chased us inside and really bothered my eldest son as he hangs out there and reads quite a lot (especially that cigar smoker). But again, we knew before hand about the smoking policy on HAL....and this will probably keep us looking to Celebrity unless we like a HAL price/itinerary better, until they change the smoking policy (not holding my breath, lol). Surprisingly, the smoke in the casino was not too bad.

 

But hey, if you *are* a smoker, please, do us a favor: when you go outside to have a smoke at 6am, THINK about the people below you when you drag that chair across the balcony and let it screeeeeech! On at least 3 mornings, as the sun was coming up, the 2 women in the cabin above us decided they needed to move their chairs to a better 'smoking spot,' and didn't have the brains to think "hey, maybe this incredibly loud noise will bother the people sleeping around and below us!"

 

Overall, Eurodam: -4 thumbs up! We had a blast!

[terigo]

I like these sorts of "personal opinion" reviews, so thanks!

Though we aren't booked in a PH :p, we are still eagerly anticipating our cruise on her this Saturday....

 

And I must be the only person in the world who doesn't smoke and isn't bothered by it when others do.... :)

[m steve]

I agree with you. I've rarelly noticed the smoke odor when on a balcony.

[MovingForward]

Thanks for posting Krewzin. I enjoyed reading your review! I'll be on the Eurodam 12/11-18. I'm so excited :)

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[cruiseapril]

Enjoyed the way you did your review. :)

[goldengatecruisers]

Your review was wonderful. Thank you for taking the time to write and share your experiences. We make a return to HAL after only taking one cruise in 2007 on Westerdam. We had a Deluxe Verandah Suite on that sailing and have booked the same category for our B2B Eurodam cruise in January. Having just come off Crystal Symphony yesterday we realize HAL is a different product but we enjoyed our time on Westerdam and we are very excited to be sailing on Eurodam. We have heard wonderful things about this ship and I must say the new decor looks stunning in photographs. I am looking forward to exploring the ship. Your review, among others, has helped us get a sense of what to expect. The smoking is a concern to us also. One of the lovely things about sailing on Crystal is that they do not permit smoking on the verandahs. Occasionally you will find someone enjoying a smoke on their terrace but it is a rarity. But I am sure it will not mar our experience. I too wish people would consider others when dragging their balcony furniture - is it that difficult to lift rather than scrape? I was looking forward to the production shows as this is something we enjoy attending and I was disappointed to learn that they were not worth of a 5 star rating from the OP. I recall the complimentary laundry on Westerdam was not the best. Many items were stretched out and a large safety pin attached 'our copy' of the laundry list. I was heavily disappointed in that aspect and hope things are noticeably different on board Eurodam. I promise to also add a review once I return from my sailing mid-January.

[Himself]

Thanks for a good review of a wonderful ship. I am sorry about the smoking problems. I quit seventeen and one-half years ago and I have little tolerance for smoking myself.

[m steve]

and hope my partners smoking will not annoy our neighbors. This will be our first cruise midship as we try to book aft to mitigate the smoke. It will also be our first deluxe veranda suite.

[unfdoug]

Thank you for the review. Awesome. I just got off the Eurodam earlier this month. It won me over.

 

Two weeks before I was on the Celebrity Solstice and it wouldnt even be fair to compare the two. Two entirely different classes.

[krewzin]

And I must be the only person in the world who doesn't smoke and isn't bothered by it when others do.... :)

 

 

It bothered my son more than any of us, and that was primarily when we weren't moving (although our neighbors continuous barrage of cigars were evident even between ports). But of the 7 days, there were perhaps 4-5 times where the rest of the family went inside due to the smoke....so it really wasn't incredibly horrible to us.

 

We love the policy on Celebrity however, and we will (now) look to book Celebrity first because of this. We still love HAL though, and smokers have every right to smoke on the balcony, so we really have no right to complain unless & until they ever change the smoking policy (still handing out that smoking survey).

 

 

Your review was wonderful. Thank you for taking the time to write and share your experiences. We make a return to HAL after only taking one cruise in 2007 on Westerdam. We had a Deluxe Verandah Suite on that sailing and have booked the same category for our B2B Eurodam cruise in January. Having just come off Crystal Symphony yesterday we realize HAL is a different product but we enjoyed our time on Westerdam and we are very excited to be sailing on Eurodam. We have heard wonderful things about this ship and I must say the new decor looks stunning in photographs. I am looking forward to exploring the ship. Your review, among others, has helped us get a sense of what to expect. The smoking is a concern to us also. One of the lovely things about sailing on Crystal is that they do not permit smoking on the verandahs. Occasionally you will find someone enjoying a smoke on their terrace but it is a rarity. But I am sure it will not mar our experience. I too wish people would consider others when dragging their balcony furniture - is it that difficult to lift rather than scrape? I was looking forward to the production shows as this is something we enjoy attending and I was disappointed to learn that they were not worth of a 5 star rating from the OP. I recall the complimentary laundry on Westerdam was not the best. Many items were stretched out and a large safety pin attached 'our copy' of the laundry list. I was heavily disappointed in that aspect and hope things are noticeably different on board Eurodam. I promise to also add a review once I return from my sailing mid-January.

 

 

Thank you.

 

I'm sorry to bring the news of the poor production shows on Eurodam as we too look forward to them, but that's always very subjective, and perhaps you'll love it. The shows we watched on Solstice in July were so much better IMO.....the time and effort placed into production of what we witnessed on Eurodam was seemingly well below par. Just seemed extremely amateurish, even in comparison to what we saw on Zuiderdam a few years back.

 

If you go to the Queen's Lounge to watch HAL superstars, karaoke, and the not-so-newlywed games, etc., be sure to get there about 15 minutes early as it's a small venue that fills up quickly, and there are a LOT of seat-savers in there. We went in early this past Thursday, and there were 4 seperate booths (that seat 8+ people) being held by 2 people each. Those shows ended up being SRO, so get there a little early!

 

And the laundry service did stretch out the sleeves on one of my LS shirts, lol....but we found the service was quite good (we utilized it on many occasions).

 

And don't miss Bingo! My son won $618 on the 2nd day of the cruise and was blown away....he's never won anything before so he was ecstatic! On Solstice they held it in their comedy club....but here it was in the main theater with plenty of room.

 

You will love the Eurodam, she is truly a beautiful ship. But for the fact that I knew she was over 2 years old, I would've otherwise taken her for being brand new, because they keep her so spotless. Of the 14 ships that dock in Lauderdale, she is only 1 of 2 that have remained Norovirus-free according to the CD, and this (their cleanliness and attention to detail) is one of the main reasons behind it.

 

 

-Some other tidbits I had forgotten in my OP:

 

*Internet was surprisingly faster than I expected utilizing my laptop in our cabin.

 

*The library/Exploration's Cafe is incredible; beautiful and extensive!

 

*Bread pudding on lido (Asian food area) is absolutely the best around.

 

*DVD selection is great - quite extensive, if you're into movies.

 

*The daily movie shown in the theater is always shown on your cabin TV the next day.

 

*You don't have to rush to the 'Mainstage' for the nightly show, as there were always ample seats left right up until showtime (at least for the 10pm shows, when we went). The comedian, and magician were the most crowded.

 

*Ship ac works great; bring a sweater cuz they keep it cold almost everywhere!

 

*Any Time Dining was fantastic; we never waited for a table with our family of 4....our normal dinner time was around 8pm.

 

*DO NOT begin filling out your end-of-cruise survey, and leave it out anywhere! My wife got hers half done, and when we came back to the cabin after dinner, it was GONE! I luckily tracked down our steward and got it back so she could finish it, but the room stewards have a history of grabbing these things out of your cabin (which really bugs me) when they see them. So hide them until you're ready to turn them in!

[topcop]

They always seem to place the slow and/or grumpy guys at the hotdog/hamburger & pizza stations. We sail on the Eurodam this Saturday and I plan to speak to someone if I come across one of these grumpy guys.

 

Too bad about the entertainment but although we love sailing with HAL, they certainly need to improve on entertainment. The blue haired crowd may find the big floor shows interesting but give me a hypnotist, magician or comedian anytime. There are also some singer/musician pairs and groups that are more entertaining than the floor shows.

 

But, everyone has their likes and dislikes. Thanks for your review.

[krewzin]

<snip> but give me a hypnotist, magician or comedian anytime. There are also some singer/musician pairs and groups that are more entertaining than the floor shows. </snip>

 

 

 

I'm with you on this one. On many ships, they have the comedian/juggler/magician do several shows, rather than just one. The comic on the Solstice did about 4-5 shows throughout the week.

 

Eurodam needs to offer more night time activities like this if they want to attract more people in the 30-60 yo range. We found that, other than the 8pm and 10pm evening show.....there was really absolutely nothing else going on other than the occasional game/quiz show (these were at 9pm).

 

WE would've loved having the option to catch the comedian, or magician at 11pm in the Queens Lounge on the evening of sea days. Or even in one of the many (empty) bars. All these beautiful louges/bars were empty later on, because there was not much else going on in there other than just serving drinks.

[basiatasia]

We have three cabins on 8th floor on Eurodam for this sat (12/4/10) was wondering if there is doors on balcony that can be opened so we can enjoy our friends on the balcony?? We went on Norwegian before and my hubby used some kind of tool to open the door but steward made us close it so we did every day lol they were afraid of door slamming when ship is in motion

[basiatasia]

I hate it when they cancel ports.

 

Than you for the awesome review

[beckylynn1961]

i did not want to quote the whole post, but agree with kruzin on the end of cruise survey. i was only half finished with mine, left it in room, and it was gone when returned. keep it hidden til finished or POOF!:)

[m steve]

would cause anyone to be grumpy. Smelling fying meat and potatoes. Reminds me of the Soup **** on Seinfeld.

[NicksPhilly]

Thanks for the nice review.

Did you notice if the pools were saltwater or freshwater?

[ariawoman]

We have three cabins on 8th floor on Eurodam for this sat (12/4/10) was wondering if there is doors on balcony that can be opened so we can enjoy our friends on the balcony?? We went on Norwegian before and my hubby used some kind of tool to open the door but steward made us close it so we did every day lol they were afraid of door slamming when ship is in motion

 

There are partitions that can be opened, but I think you'll have the same issue with them closing it for being in motion. I know the stewards can unlock it, but am not sure if they leave it unlocked or not as we didnt have ours unlocked since we didn't figure the strangers next to us wanted to see our mugs LOL.

[cruisinjudy]

On Westerdam we had the partitions unlocked the whole time as we had three cabins in a row for family. We used teh balcony to travel back and forth between rooms.